Cotton vs Coty
American parents have registered 6,303 Cotys since 1880, against 507 Cottons. But in 2025 it was Cotton that was commoner, 9 babies to 9.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Cotton Coty
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 63 years in which either name was published, Coty for 52 years and Cotton for 11 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.
Side by side
| Cotton | Coty | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 507 | 6,303 |
| Most in one year | 31 | 599 |
| Babies in 2025 | 9 | 9 |
| Estimated living today | 490 | 6,100 |
| Median age today | 14 | 34 |
| Peak year | 2015 | 1992 |
| Best rank | 3,513th boys | 406th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 8,243rd | 8,243rd |
| First recorded | 1918 | 1956 |
| Girls / boys | 0 / 507 | 778 / 5,525 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Which name is older
Half of the Cotys alive today are over 34; half the Cottons are over 14. That is 20 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Compare something else
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Cotton and Coty.